President in Kabul to attend Ashraf Ghani’s oath-taking

KABUL/ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain has arrived in Kabul to attend inauguration of Afghan President-elect Ashraf Ghani.

According to officials, the president is also likely to hold a meeting with the newly-elected Afghan President and discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations.

Afghanistan will host a grand presidential inauguration today, as NATO troops end their 13-year war without defeating the fierce Taliban insurgency.

Afghan dignitaries gathered for the ceremony in the presidential palace as helicopters buzzed overhead ferrying in foreign guests.

The event will mark the country’s first democratic transfer of power — a benchmark seen by international donors as a key legacy of the costly military and civilian intervention since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Both Ghani and his poll rival Abdullah Abdullah claimed to have won the fraud-tainted June 14 election, plunging Afghanistan into a crisis that threatened to trigger nationwide unrest.

Under heavy pressure from the US and UN, the two candidates eventually agreed to form a “national unity government”, and Ghani was declared president after an audit of nearly eight million ballot papers.

Abdullah will also be sworn in on Monday as chief executive, a new role similar to a prime minister, in a government structure far different to Karzai’s all-powerful presidency.

John Podesta, counselor to President Barack Obama, will lead a 10-strong US delegation, with President Mamnoon Hussain representing Pakistan and Vice President Hamid Ansari travelling from India.

Many other countries, including Britain and France, will be represented only by their ambassadors in Kabul, while China is sending Yin Weimin, minister of human resources.